A/N: Hey y'all. I know I should be working on The Father We Have, but this idea came to me and I want to do it.

I don't own the Outsiders.

(Third person POV)

Life was starting to get back to normal for the Curtis gang. It was two years after the death of Johnny and Dally. Pony was 16, Soda ws 18 (nearly 19), Steve was 19, Two-Bit was 20, and Darry was 23. Money for the Curtis family was better because of Darry's and Soda's recent premotions. Two-Bit was still in high school, but now he and Ponyboy were both in 11th grade. Steve had finshed high school, and decided against collage and now works full time with Soda at the DX. But this normal life the Curtis gang had crafted after the deaths of there friends was about to change forever. All because of one simple peace of paper.

"Pony," Darry called, "Can you go get the mail?"

Ponyboy looked annoyed, but he put down his book and went to get the mail. He was only gone a moment, until he ran back into the house sobbing. Darry and Soda both got up and were at their little brothers side in an instant, trying to calm him down.

"They can't take you!" Ponyboy screeched, "They can't!"

Darry and Soda shared a concerned look. What was Pony talking about? Who was trying to take who away?

"Pony? Pony, you need to calm down and tell us what your talking about," Soda tried to coax Ponyboy into telling them what's wrong.

"Come on, Little Colt. Calm down," Darry pleaded with his hysteric little brother.

It took a long time to get Ponyboy calmed down, and when they did, he was exhausted.

"What made you so upset?" Soda asked, hugging his drained brother.

"This, Soda. This." For the first time, the two older Curtis brothers noticed that Ponyboy had a death grip on an unopened letter. He held it up to them, his hands moving so fast it looked like they were vibrating. after they got the letter out of Ponyboy's death grip, they saw why he was so upset.

The letter had the army seal on it.

Soda slowly started to open the letter, not even looking to see who it was addressed to. After unfolded the letter, the eighteen year old began to read it silently to himself. After one sentence, he dropped it and screamed, "NO!"

"It's ok, Pepsi-Cola," Darry tried to comfort his distressed brother, "You'll be ok."

"No!" exclaimed Soda, "No, you don't understand. It's not me, Darry. It's not me." That's when the tears started.

"Then who is it for?" Ponyboy questioned in a strained voice.

"See for yourself," Soda whispered back, picking up the letter and handing it to them.

The letter stated: To Darrel Shaynne Curtis Jr.; You are herby directed to present yourself for Armed Forces Physical Examination...

The letter went on, telling important dates, how he should be honored, blah, blah, blah. None of the Curtis brothers cared. They could only focus on one thing. What the letter ment. It ment fighting with heaters, guns. It means being gone for a long time, maybe to never come back. It ment leaving the country. It means the oldest brother leaving his two little brothers. It means Darry was drafted.

It means he's going to Vietnam.

They all stayed still for a while, not wanting to believe it. Ponyboy flung himself at Darry, hugging him with a strength that surprised his oldest brother. Soda wasn't far behind Pony, hugging Darry with all his might. Darry put one arm around both of hs little brothers, pulling them close to him. They were all crying.

This is how Two-Bit and Steve found them when they came, hugging and crying. They both paled, wondering what could have happened to make the Curtis brothers cry like this.

"Guys, what happened?" Two-Bit asked, none of his usual joking manner shining through. Johnny and Dally's death made him see that there were times when you had to be serious.

Darry picked up the letter from where it had fallen on the floor, and handed it to the two worried greasers. As they read it, they paled even more. They put the letter down on the coffee table and sat down, hard, taking in the fact that the oldest of them all was going to war.

It was a long time before anyone spoke, and when, someone did, everyone was shocked that it was Ponyboy. "Maybe you'll fail the physical. Maybe you pulled a muscle too many times for you to go to war." Ponyboy was trying to cling to what little hope he had.

Steve laughed humorously. "Never gonna happen. Superman is too fit to not pass. Never smokes, never drinks."

They all fell silent again. Two-Bit broke it this time, with the best thing any of them had ever heard. "Dar, you can't be drafted. Your a single parent, or a single guardian, whatever the proper term is. They don't send single parents to war."

With a start, everyone else realized, he was right. The government might be unfair about the draft, but they don't take single parents, or guardians, away from their kids. Darry wasn't going to war. The whole gang cheered.

But in the back of Darry's head, he felt like that wasn't right. Like something had happened that made it so Ponyboy had two guardians, him and someone else. But he pushed it off. Who else could be Pony's guardian but him?

He would soon find out.

Review? Please.